yahoo2 Posted July 2, 2013 Share Posted July 2, 2013 I have had a few of these small hardie anvils (pictured on the right) stacked in a box on the shelf for six months or so, hoping that some inspiration would come to me as to what they are used for. I am officially admitting defeat and asking for some help :unsure: I have been working on the theory that they are for repairing or resetting something that is already forged but I could be way off the mark! Some are like this one with two adjacent notches on the edge and one has three sides notched. the un-notched faces are very precisely faced and one anvil has a couple of small punched holes that look to me like it is used to help align the object to be forged. regards Yahoo p.s. the monkey in the picture is not handled and on my tool rack cos I've been a bit slack unmotivated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DanBrassaw Posted July 2, 2013 Share Posted July 2, 2013 Hard to tell the scale, perhaps the notches lined up with a pritchel hole on a particular anvil? That would seem a little close, but its a possibility. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yahoo2 Posted July 2, 2013 Author Share Posted July 2, 2013 this one is 2" by 2" across the anvil top plate with an inch and a quarter hardie stem and the stem is offset away from the notches (just so it fits, I think). the others are 1.5", 2" and 3" across the top, I think that is deliberate. On this one, one notch fits 7/8" round and the other 9/16". The octagonal shape of the stem had me thinking that it might fit diagonally and go over a pritchel hole, but it looks like the bloke that made it has accidentally made the stem undersized and reworked the metal out of the corners to salvage it. The others are all 7/8" stems to go in a hardie stand, not the hardie hole in an anvil. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joshua.M Posted July 2, 2013 Share Posted July 2, 2013 the one on the left is a tool that should have a handle on it, it is used for making shoulders on tenons square so they sit tightly against whatever the tenon passes through Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rockstar.esq Posted July 2, 2013 Share Posted July 2, 2013 I wonder if there was a top tool with posts on it that aligned with those notches. Perhaps the small holes were where an adjustable stop fit to it. It's also possible that the notches were for bolts to clamp oddball bottom tools to a hardie. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Turley Posted July 3, 2013 Share Posted July 3, 2013 I'm guessing at tomcats here. When I was in Australia in 2005, I saw a similar tool that was notched on four sides. A farrier at our workshop said that it was a horseshoer's heel cropper. I can't recall the exact shape, but the idea was to take a yellow heat and drive the extremity of the horseshoe heel onto and into the notch thereby cropping a half round heel. I know that in the States, there was such a thing for thin race horseshoes (plates) called a heel swage. The swage was homemade and did not have the notch all the way through but rather, a swaged heel depression in the steel block. By hammering the hot shoe into the die (swage) the horseshoe heel was formed. Sayings and Cornpone "It never occurs to teenagers that someday they will know as little as their parents." Bits & Pieces, The Economics Press, Fairfield, NJ. 1982 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yahoo2 Posted July 4, 2013 Author Share Posted July 4, 2013 That is a definite possibility. I have never seen a caulk and wedge shoe made but its the right shape to form a short rounded or half moon cleat. I do know the shop made a lot of gear for draft horses and bullock teams in some hilly wet country. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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